“I looked over the edge of the ravine to see somebody there, helpless, barely moving. She lifted her head to look at me and I fled, stumbling, back to my room in Mr. Thiel’s house. Something had followed me there. Something, somebody, tall and dark, wrapped in a cloak, able to move soundlessly through the house.”—from The Callender Papers.
Jean Wainwright, ward of Wainwright Academy’s strict but affectionate headmistress, Miss Constance, was quite unprepared for the strange happenings of that memorable summer, 1894. The school’s most generous patron, Mr. Daniel Thiel, had written requesting that a young girl be sent from the school to his home in Marlborough. The lucky girl was to spend the summer sorting through the memorabilia associated with Thiel’s late wife Irene, and her wealthy family, the Callenders. Jean, fascinated by the stories her aunt has told her about the flamboyant Callender family, accepts the challenge. But she takes an immediate dislike to her sullen new employer and is certain he is hiding something. Think carefully has been the guiding principle of Jean’s upbringing. But is careful thought enough to protect her from the hidden secrets in the Callender Papers?
